Influence of body posture on foot load distribution in young school-age children

Young school-age children are particularly prone to postural defects because they are in a period of development of the spine that is exposed to a number of factors impairing its normal growth. A change in the shape of the spinal column causes a shift in the centre of gravity. Therefore, this study attempted to assess the influence of body posture on distribution of the load transferred by the lower limbs.

For each of the examined children, this study determined the parameters describing the body posture with the use of the photogrammetric method and the parameters describing plantar force distribution. The statistical analyses were performed using the U Mann- Whitney test and the student's t-test. The correlations between the parameters of the body posture and the parameters describing the foot load distribution were analysed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. These analyses were performed at a statistically significant level of p < 0.05.

The tests conducted showed an occurrence of postural defects in about 42% of the subjects and excessively uneven loading of the lower limbs in about 65% of the children.

The authors obtained a medium intensity correlation between the analysed parameters for the groups of boys and girls.